Monthly Archives: November 2012

We’ve begun the speculation part of our program. We’re watching other teams fire their coaches and release their under-performing players. We’re discussing the impending arrival of Caleb Porter and who will be released from our roster.

Rumor. Conjecture. Heartburn.

Merritt says announcements may come as early as next week. I’m a big ball of messy emotions. I hate this part.

Sure, there are a few players I think I can more easily let go of than others (there’s a little Jamaican I wouldn’t mind driving to the airport), but, for the most part, I’ll be sad to see any of these guys go.

This is, if you’ll remember, the same group of guys that held such promise last spring. I’m still kind of stunned that this is how we ended up. It’s going to take a long time to get over that.

There are those around me who are hoping for a full-scale house-cleaning. Get rid of as many of them as you can and start from square one. I’m not, mostly due to my sentimental nature, on that side of the fence.

We have talent that’s been left untapped. I don’t think this chapter is over yet. There’s a lot left to be written.

I’d like to see another few words about Steven Smith and Eric Alexander paired on the left with an occasional paragraph or two with Eric in the center.

I’d like a page or two where David Horst wears the captain’s armband.

I want to see more words about Bright Dike, who seems recently to be writing his own story, and more about a half dozen of the younger guys. I want a chapter in which Darlington Nagbe becomes a superstar.

And, as you all know, I’m not done reading Kris Boyd’s comeback story.

Lots of the writers and bloggers that surround this team have been working through the current roster, deciding who they believe should stay and who should go. Some of the things written have been poignant, educated, inspired. Some of it has been drivel. The one constant is this: we don’t know who will go and who will stay and we have absolutely no say in the matter anyway.

I know who I’d vote off the island. I know who I’d keep. I know some of the ones I’d like to keep will probably be on the chopping block, but I will continue to love them and defend them from the idiots who never understood their value. Because that’s what I do. Because these are my boys.

I’ve been ranty for about twelve hours now. That’s a long time for me to be ranty.

Usually, I rant in short bursts, a few minutes at a time, much the way I exercise. A few minutes here, a few minutes there. Short attention span, wander off.

As I write, this is Offseason Day 12. Twelve hours of ranting for Day 12.

We started out this morning with a few delusions from Merritt, the sorts of things we’ve come to expect from him. He says he didn’t expect that Kris Boyd wouldn’t start all the time. He says the fans just have to be patient because, obviously, we don’t understand the foundation of this team.

Wait. Let’s back up. Did he just urge patience? The guy that fired his coach mid-season? Oh, okay. That makes total sense. Clearly, Merritt and I would have a lot to talk about if anyone would let me get close enough to ask him a few questions.

I could spend a few hundred words about patience and foundation (starting with why’d you trade Kenny away for allocation money when you could have fixed the problem with a decent midfield signing that might have allowed you to do this painfully slow development of young players thing you seem to be stuck on?). But I won’t. Mostly because I’m tired. Because I’ve been ranting all day.

This offseason stuff is exhausting. So much has happened, but I think my soul is still recovering from the last match. It was a painful and disappointing and sad night but, in the end, I was put face to face with my two Scots in a bar I love but am soon losing. That’s right, both of them. Somewhere on the internet, there is photographic evidence that this was not just a figment of my imagination.

It’s been a whirlwind. It feels like that last match was yesterday. And four years ago. I can’t explain.

Apparently Kimura’s in Poland? I took a swing and tried to get some sort of official word from the FO, but the best I could get was the promise of an “official statement regarding current roster players” closer to the MLS Cup. For those who haven’t put it on their calendar, that will be December 1.

All the credit in the world goes to Michelle DeFord and Brenda Vaughn and all the folks involved in putting this together. I saw the galleys tonight and the whole thing is gorgeous. Proceeds will go to Harper’s Playground. Buy a calendar. Seriously. They’ll be available just in time for holiday gift-giving.

I’ll have more (coherent) words in a few days when I calm down from witnessing Kenny Cooper’s new team let him down just moments before spending two hours watching Nick Rimando’s team let him down. Oof. I don’t even make sense anymore. Clearly.